R.B.I. Baseball 17

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Weekly Roster Update 9/28/18

September 28, 2018

Welcome to the final regular season edition of the R.B.I Baseball Weekly Roster Update! With only a few days remaining in the 2018 regular season there is still plenty to be determined. Can Christian Yelich’s MVP-caliber performances lead the Brewers to the NL Central title? Can the Rockies stay hot and take the NL West or will Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers take the division? While you wait to find out, why not enjoy a game of R.B.I Baseball with freshly boosted players like Rafael Devers, Anthony Rendon, Hyun-Jin Ryu and more!

There’s no guarantee as to who is going to win the NL Cy Young this year, but Max Scherzer has certainly made a case for himself. The veteran righty’s 12.24 K/9 is the highest of his 11 year career. This is also the first time Scherzer has posted a 300 K season. His 2.08 walk rate is also his lowest since 2015. Scherzer had the best fastball in all of baseball in 2018. He threw the pitch over 1,700 times this year and gave up fewer than 75 hits off of it; that’s a .198 BAA (Batting Average Against). Even more impressive, his change-up had a .126 BAA! We’ve boosted Scherzer’s Curve and Drop ratings.

The Colorado Rockies have been playing mile-high baseball this past week thanks to some fantastic offense and pitchers like Kyle Freeland. The southpaw’s last start came against the Diamondbacks in a crucial inter-division game. He went 7 IP with 0 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, and 6 K. Freeland has been having this sort of success all year as he almost cut his 4.10 2017 ERA in half to 2.84. The change can be attributed in part to how Freeland has been utilizing his arsenal. While he used to heavily rely on his fastball, Freeland started mixing in his cutter more, especially when ahead in the count. As a result, his K rate has gone up over 5%. We’ve boosted Freeland’s Max Stamina, Velocity, Curve, Drop, and Speed Difference ratings.

After struggling earlier on in the season, Cody Reed has been fantastic in the 2nd half of the year. In his last three starts, Reed has gone 14.2 IP with 3 ER, 11 H, 2 BB, and 18 K’s for a 1.84 ERA and an 11.05 K/9. The Reds lefty has started focusing on his sinker and slider a bit more while eschewing his four-seamer. The change has actually made both the slider and the four-seamer more effective. Batters are hitting .238 off the fastball and a meager .162 off of Reed’s slider this year. We’ve boosted Reed’s Max Stamina, Curve, and Speed Difference ratings.

It’s appropriate that Betts is featured in the RBI 18 blog this week because he’s been putting up video game numbers. This past week, Betts set a career high in both homers – 32- and stolen bases – 30 – making him only the 2nd outfielder in Red Sox history to do so (Jacoby Ellsbury) and the 2nd player to have a 30/30 season this year (Jose Ramirez). Mookie’s 10.1 WAR, .346 AVG and .643 SLG lead all of baseball while his .437 OBP and 185 wRC+ are 2nd only to Mike Trout. We’ve boosted Mookie’s Power, Arm, Fielding, and Speed ratings.

Between Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuna, Juan Soto, Miguel Andujar, and Joey Wendle there have been some fantastic rookie performances this year. Brian Anderson’s year has certainly been one of them. The Marlins third baseman and outfielder is 4th in WAR amongst National League rookies thanks to his .333 wOBA, .356 OBP, and above average defensive capabilities. Anderson’s above league average 38.2% hard contact rate and below league average 16.2 soft contact rate have led to 33 doubles and 11 homers this year. We’ve boosted Anderson’s Contact, Power, Arm, and Fielding ratings.

Since joining the Tampa Bay Rays on the first of August, Pham has been an offensive wrecking ball. In his two month tenure in Florida, Pham has had the 10th best WAR in baseball at 2.6, the 3rd best AVG at .346 and 4th best SLG at .638. Pham also continues to be a distraction on the base paths with his 1.7 BsR (Base Running; a stat meant to equate how many runs above average a player provides on the base paths with league average being 0). While Pham’s HR/FB ratio has regressed a bit in his 2018 campaign, the outfielder has increased his line-drive rate and set a new career high in hard contact at 48.6% We’ve boosted Pham’s Contact, Power, and Speed ratings.